Sometimes a game hits you at the right time, I think I’ve given worse scores to more interesting metroidvanias, but sometimes you are just in the right mood for a 6 hour riff on Symphony of the Night with solid controls and pretty art. Sometimes it’s what you need
A great metroidvania game. Great controls and awesome visuals. Another must play!
Voy a ignorar todos los aspectos técnicos porque es una pena lo mal que va aunque puede ser cosa de mi pc.
He visto muchas criticas al combate y es verdad que podría ser más profundo pero tampoco creo que sea lo que busca este juego, y el resto de aspectos es que simplemente son muy buenos, destacando especialmente el movimiento que no esperaba que fuese la gozada que es y el arte y los diseños, tiene que tener uno de los pixelarts más bonitos que he visto nunca.
Me ha gustado un montón y tengo ganas de ver qué más hacen, porque construyendo un poco sobre los problemas que tiene este juego tienen potencial para hacer maravillas.
He visto muchas criticas al combate y es verdad que podría ser más profundo pero tampoco creo que sea lo que busca este juego, y el resto de aspectos es que simplemente son muy buenos, destacando especialmente el movimiento que no esperaba que fuese la gozada que es y el arte y los diseños, tiene que tener uno de los pixelarts más bonitos que he visto nunca.
Me ha gustado un montón y tengo ganas de ver qué más hacen, porque construyendo un poco sobre los problemas que tiene este juego tienen potencial para hacer maravillas.
I read some impressions of 9 Years of Shadows when it released last year, and many of them spoke about how it's basically just Symphony of the Night, which is one of my favorite games so just more of that sounded like a pretty good thing to me. Sadly, though, it's mainly Symphony of the night in the sense that the pixel art looks very, very good, and not quite in how it plays.
Not to say that I dislike 9 Years of Shadows. Not at all! It's a perfectly fine Metroidvania, but also maybe misses the point of the genre a bit. I don't really play enough modern Metroidvanias to generalize too much, but outside of games like Hollow Knight or Bloodstained, I feel like they're developed by people who are too afraid of players dropping their games if they get lost, so a lot of their maps are quite linear, don't really necessitate much backtracking, and their challenge mainly comes from combat rather than exploration, which is bad since somehow almost no Metroidvania other than Igarashi's Castlevanias (through leveling up and loot) even to this day know how to make combat worthwhile.
I say this because 9 Years of Shadows, as much as it wants to be Symphony of the night aesthetically, doesn't even come close to it as a Metroidvania. There is barely any exploration, combat is completely pointless while enemies have way too much health, and backtracking is rarely wortwhile. At the same time, though, it's got some really interesting abilities that don't feel like the mandatory Metroidvania staples that are used in really clever ways for fun platforming challenges that can be decently challenging but still fair since the controls are so responsive and smooth. Despite having a few too many boss fights (which as far as I can tell is because designing bosses was a backer reward when the game was being crowdfunded), several of them are also surprisingly creative in how the game wants you to fight them, and the final boss especially was a nice challenge after what was otherwise a fairly easy romp.
Honestly, though, what probably saves 9 Years of Shadows from a lower rating is just how short it is. I'm a big fan of shorter Metroidvanias, and while six hours on a first playthrough might be even on the "too short" end of the scale, it feels like the developers knew the limitations of what they'd designed and made a game that lasts for exactly as long as it could without the linearity and slow combat becoming too annoying, with some light backtracking to please a sicko veteran like me while still not scaring off people new to the genre. Probably would have been better as a linear action-platformer than occasionally pretending to be a Metroidvania, though.
The soundtrack's just ok. A bit like Mega Man 8 but without the vibes, to explain it in a way that everyone can understand.
Not to say that I dislike 9 Years of Shadows. Not at all! It's a perfectly fine Metroidvania, but also maybe misses the point of the genre a bit. I don't really play enough modern Metroidvanias to generalize too much, but outside of games like Hollow Knight or Bloodstained, I feel like they're developed by people who are too afraid of players dropping their games if they get lost, so a lot of their maps are quite linear, don't really necessitate much backtracking, and their challenge mainly comes from combat rather than exploration, which is bad since somehow almost no Metroidvania other than Igarashi's Castlevanias (through leveling up and loot) even to this day know how to make combat worthwhile.
I say this because 9 Years of Shadows, as much as it wants to be Symphony of the night aesthetically, doesn't even come close to it as a Metroidvania. There is barely any exploration, combat is completely pointless while enemies have way too much health, and backtracking is rarely wortwhile. At the same time, though, it's got some really interesting abilities that don't feel like the mandatory Metroidvania staples that are used in really clever ways for fun platforming challenges that can be decently challenging but still fair since the controls are so responsive and smooth. Despite having a few too many boss fights (which as far as I can tell is because designing bosses was a backer reward when the game was being crowdfunded), several of them are also surprisingly creative in how the game wants you to fight them, and the final boss especially was a nice challenge after what was otherwise a fairly easy romp.
Honestly, though, what probably saves 9 Years of Shadows from a lower rating is just how short it is. I'm a big fan of shorter Metroidvanias, and while six hours on a first playthrough might be even on the "too short" end of the scale, it feels like the developers knew the limitations of what they'd designed and made a game that lasts for exactly as long as it could without the linearity and slow combat becoming too annoying, with some light backtracking to please a sicko veteran like me while still not scaring off people new to the genre. Probably would have been better as a linear action-platformer than occasionally pretending to be a Metroidvania, though.
The soundtrack's just ok. A bit like Mega Man 8 but without the vibes, to explain it in a way that everyone can understand.